Marlins dominated by Ivan Nova in 4-0 loss to Pirates

Here's one measure of Ivan Nova's dominance Saturday night: The Miami Marlins' most electrifying moment at the plate came in the bottom of the ninth from pinch-hitter Derek Dietrich, who saw three pitches and made an out.

Nova, a Pittsburgh right-hander, was moments away from completing his third career shutout in the Pirates' 4-0 win at Marlins Park. On the first pitch, Dietrich watched a fastball for a called strike. On the second, he lofted a long fly ball down the right-field line, landing over the wall but foul by a few feet. On the third, Dietrich gave it another ride, nearly 400 feet but to only the warning track in center.

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That's the closest the Marlins came to scoring against Nova, who tossed his first-ever "Maddux" — a term used to describe shutouts in under 100 pitches, named after Hall of Famer Greg Maddux.

This marked the Marlins' fourth straight loss, their longest such streak of the young season, and sends them into Sunday's series finale looking for what would be their first win in a week and looking to avoid what would be a second straight sweep.

"Sometimes you have to go out there and the only way to win is to put up all zeroes," said righty Dan Straily, who started opposite Nova. "Tonight was one of those nights, and I wasn't able to get it done."

Nova was good beginning to end. Martin Prado doubled in the first. Justin Bour singled in the fifth. Marcell Ozuna singled in the eighth. That represented the entirety of the Marlins offense. Nova offered no walks, no sacrifices, not so much as a hit-by-pitch. Thanks to a double play, he faced only two more than the minimum 27 batters.

Nova needed 95 pitches (65 strikes) and threw as many as three balls in a plate appearance on only three occasions.

"He did a good job. We didn't do such a good [job]," Christian Yelich said. "Just one of those nights."

Early on, it looked like Straily would match Nova. Straily cruised through five innings, but lost his command of the game — if not the strike zone, in his assessment — in the sixth. He yielded a single to Josh Bell and walked three consecutive batters.

The last of those forced in a run and ended Straily's night. He threw 26 pitches while recording one out.

"They laid off some good pitches. They really did," Straily said. "Three walks in a row, but I wouldn't say I lost command. I was trying to get them to go after my pitch, and they never took."

In relief of Straily, Brad Ziegler induced an inning-ending double play from Jordy Mercer, but not before walking John Jaso to force in another run.

The only other run Pittsburgh scored against Straily came in the second, when Mercer sent an 0-2 slider up the middle to plate Gregory Polanco, who had doubled.

The Marlins' defensive night ended with an inning from A.J. Ramos, who pitched for the first time since last Sunday in San Diego, which is also the last time the Marlins won. His first pitch turned into a Jaso homer.

This four-game losing streak for Miami is the longest of either variety — winning or losing — this season.

"We pitched pretty good. We just weren't able to muster any offense," manager Don Mattingly said. "Obviously if you don't score, you're not going to win.

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"We're always going to have to turn the page. It's still tough to take the way you feel right now, but you still look at it, I think we've played 22 games. We have 140 baseball games left. We have to play with some more sense of urgency I think, but still, we know two days from now if we've won two in a row, we're starting to feel good and we may go on a roll."